Category: On World Affairs

Following is the transcript of my Presidential Address at the Prof D T Lakdavala Memorial Lecture recently. The Chief Guest was Dr Benjamin R.Barber, a US writer and thinker. He has been pleading for a new global order to be run by mayors or local leaders. Hearing him I decided to question his viewpoint. The Annual Lecture was organised by Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.

We just heard a stimulating and thought-provoking lecture by Dr. Benjamin Barber. I have a feeling that he likes to give a little bit of jolt to our unthinking minds and make you think of new possibilities, and depart from traditional ways of thinking anywhere in the world — in the US, India, China or in Europe. His is a global mind. But he wants global minds to emerge from the cities, from the bottom upwards.

The idea of his lecture is to ignite a debate on related issues on a subject has become his passion.

I am afraid, it will take a lot of time for an ideal global order to emerge. — And a lot of more time for the cities to be powerful enough to govern the emerging nation states as they have come up in Asia and Africa. The globalisation trend is also leading to a global set of institutions. The UN is not the only example. It has done some good work, globally and regionally. Good work has also been done by the European Union. But now even the European Union idea has come under serious threat lately. The Schengen visa, which has been an excellent development for the world, has now led to new situation because of the threat coming from outside European borders, the latest being immigration.

The Europeans are discovering that if they throw open the borders, people from West Asia —mostly refugees from the Syrian war — will easily find their way and this will have serious international ramifications. Those have roots in international power equations. Also some causes lie in the ideas like the clash of civilisations. I am not talking about the body of the child who was recently found dead on a Turkish beach whose picture iiiiis picture shocked the world.

Many European countries are blocking immigration and pressing for stiff measures to stop more millions. Angela Merkel, who started giving visas freely is now being criticised by other European nations. It is not possible for them to let more immigrants to come over. Even in Germany at this time, anti-democratic right-wing forces are rising, to question the very Idea of Europe itself.

It is a plural, secular, democratic and liberal ethos that is unifying Europe. It has kept war away. But immigration is threatening some of the values which are enshrined in Dr. Barber’s proposal — the values of democracy, liberalism and pluralism etc. Now these are under threats in the European Union.

Even the UN is being considered as undemocratic. India is one of the countries that has been pleading for democratisation of UN. It has been wanting a permanent seat in the Security Council, to sit on the high table. Indeed, we are campaigning for it. Germany, Japan, Brazil, India , the entire continent of Africa are demanding a better place in the United Nations. They want to assert. “Why should vital decisions affecting the world be taken by just a few nations. Why not the others?’ they ask. The trend is a UN where smaller countries, or a newly-free country, can have a better say, in running the emerging global order.

Mahatma Gandhi, during the course of the freedom struggle, had emphasized the importance of villages, which in a way, resembles Dr.Barber’s approach. Start from the village, not even the city, was Gandhi’s way. He was distrustful of the city and stressed on starting from the village. George Mathew has spent his lifetime to study how local bodies called panchayats in India, work. And he can give you a catalogue of panchayats that can do us proud. George Mathew is one of the best educationists on panchayati raj in the country.

A lot of participation is there in panchayats. How much influence do they have in national events. Small towns: they are short of funds. Who gives them the money? Money comes from the State Government as per the wishes of the dispensation in power at the State level. Who gives the money to the states? They are expected to raise their resources. But it is the national government at the Centre which raises a chunk of resources. And if the Centre has to give money to the States, which dispenses funds to cities and Panchayats, then the power comes back to the centre. Even on the current debate on GST (Goods and Services Tax) in India, is on whether the bill should be passed, or not passed. There is a lot of argumentation between the States and the Centre and for them to delegate power to the lowest unit of administration is unthinkable.

They do talk of cooperative federalism these days in India lately. Dr. Barber is talking of quasi-federalism at the mayor’s level. We wish him all the success. But are the mayors or the national leaders of a national party going to surrender a wee bit of their power? Or, the nation states, which are going to surrender their sovereignty, particularly those which became free only in 1950s and 1960s. They are all highly conscious of what makes it to be a nation state.

In the wake of our freedom struggle, later a parallel thought had clearly come up that India should emerge as a major economic, political and nuclear power of the 21st century. And most Indians whether in villages, towns or in cities like Bombay, Delhi or Chennai, people get ecstatic when India is projected as an achiever at the international stage. Even the celebration of a victory in a cricket match is a pan-Indian phenomenon. It is not a local phenomenon of one city or the other. Their heroes are national film stars, National cricket stars. Essentially, their mind is National. When Sania Nehwal wins medals in Badminton abroad, people think of it as India’s success. There may be some celebrations in Hyderabad since she grew up there. But she causes national excitement. Similar is the case of Sania Mirza who also brings medals home. The Indian mind, although deeply divided by the consideration of caste, ethnicity, and religion or on the basis of language has over the centuries emerged as national mind.

There were fights involving these for panchayat elections, for state assembly elections,and for parliament elections, which are aberrations, but a sort of nationalism has indeed emerged, which nobody wants to see diluted. On the contrary, there is danger that, if some parties win, by invoking a kind of fierce assertive nationalism. Based on religion, this poses a danger to our democracy for the next few years, unless it is checked in time. Current debate on tolerance is essentially on those lines.

How to transfer more powers from villages to small towns to big cities governed by mayors? The mayors are to run local governments efficiently, to ensure safety of democracy and liberal values. Politicians like to exploit even divisive factors by exploiting local sentiments. For example, a party like the Shiv Sena evokes fierce regionalism questioning at times central and state authorities. Son-of-the-soil theory is still alive when jobs are involved.

India has other challenges to face that Dr. Barber must be studying them in detail. We work with one of the finest constitutions in the world, which had seen 100 years of freedom struggle behind it and great minds like Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Dr B R Ambedkar and others shaped it. It was also influenced by the freedom struggle.

In a way this is a consensus document the constitution deriving inspiration from Indian tradition as well as from the western democracies. We did create a democratic nation despite travails of the Partition of the sub-continen. It began looking ahead. These stalwarts wanted to create that kind of new India, democratic, inclusive and plural in character.

Parliament is not functioning the way it should. The MPs often waste their time. I have been a Member of Parliament for six years. I do not belong to any party. I was nominated by the President. But the way they adjourn the House, it is making Parliament unpopular in the country. MPs are not conscious of what they are losing. The judiciary, the last hope for the common citizen, is flooded with over 30 million cases which will take a quarter of a century to resolve. The faith in the judicial system is diminishing wherein the rich and powerful or a celebrity from the film industry can kill someone, and get away after a so-called trial.

There is palpable malfunctioning of the system. Some historic judgement may come out from the Supreme Court, but there are people who are rich, powerful, bold; they get away from the scope of India’s criminal justice system.

Then there is the Executive, the bureaucracy, Mr. George Mathew knows more about it, how callous it is, how indifferent it is to common man, If the common citizen is poor and illiterate then he or she doesn’t have easy access to the courts. Political parties, on the other hand, become active at the time of elections. Irresponsibility towards the people begins after the election. There are other institutions which run Indian democracy and are on the decline.

Whatever the faults, they are unlikely to support giving more powers to the city, or the panchayats. The trend in India is to capturing power in the states and then at the centre. The underlying thought is to capture Centre.

Recently, Bihar Assembly election was held where local factors led to resistance to Narendra Modi’s government. A powerful government led by BJP with the powerful support of RSS, had come to power with majority, at the Centre in 2014 after many years. First challenge to it after gaining power came in the State elections in Delhi and Bihar. The BJP got a massive drubbing in both the States. The reason: Local factors played a major role. But what is the aim of the local factors? To come to power at Centre, not necessarily to make Bihar a strong state! To capture Delhi, was the objective of State leaders.

They said this openly. The Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, was being regarded as a future contender for Prime Ministership. That was what was in their mind, making panchayats or State government in Bihar more powerful in the national scheme. Bihar’s share of power at the Centre was the aim.

To expect an Indian government to surrender a part of its power at the Centre, in the name of cooperative federalism, for example, is a wild aim. I will give the ruling dispensation, some marks for having national aims. To make India emerge as a major power of the 21st century is the subject of the debate of most thinking Indians, irrespective of political persuasion.

Dr. Barber has to work very hard to make them think in local terms. The trend here is leading in totally different direction. But to give power to Mayors at the local level and say they should think nationally or internationally, will be a difficult proposition to conceive. May be it is a futuristic thought.

Another power centre that has come which is not going to surrender its authority easily to a city’s mayor, is the corporate sector. When companies get powerful, corporate sector becomes global. They are not going to think of just London, Paris, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Delhi or Bombay. They are thinking of global markets. Global markets, with local democracy are in conflict, which one needs to resolve. I don’t know how it will work. Even national governments all over the world are getting little worried about the control, the globalised corporate Sector is having on countries, governments and public policies.

Think of the kind of power companies like Google and Microsoft, are going to wield on the mind across the world in the digital world. Will it lead to more centralisation or will it lead to more local governments. I will put it like this: The trend is more towards globalisation controlled by powerful companies and countries.

It’s not that people don’t want good governance in the city. Delhi itself is having conflict of interest causing problems. If you read the last 2-3 days of newspapers about the decision taken by Delhi government which thinks like a state but is dealing mostly with local problems, meant for local citizens or a mayor. Your references to climate change are definitely valid in Delhi itself.

Delhi has acquired a dubious reputation as the most polluted city of the world. Unfortunately we are breathing that air which is being criticised and I hope you, Dr Barber have brought a mask with you to wear when you go round to do some sight-seeing.

Lately, they have come out with a kind of an odd-and-even rule in Delhi, where one drives car alternatively on different days depending on whether it is odd or even plated. The exemption is being given for the cars coming driven by women etc. Who is to implement the scheme? Police has to come and give tickets to the erring drivers. It is under the Central Government and the Centre is not going to surrender its control to the local administration.

The Chief Minister of Delhi is a sort of a local Mayor. Although there are three corporations — actually there is a three-in-one set up. These are run by the party in-power at the Centre while the State Government is with Mr. Kejriwal. Mr Mathew can arrange a meeting between Kejriwal and Dr Barber to exchange views on running a multi-authority set up.

Urbanisation in India is going to take about 20 to 25 more years. Most cities in India are over-crowded and more and people are migrating from rural areas to urban areas. There are no jobs for them in the city.. There is an aspiring also class certainly, in the cities and this is expanding. Urban India is expanding economically as well as geographically. But the people who are coming from villages to the cities are mostly semi-educated, semi-trained and jobless. And if jobs are not given, they are going to be a major upsetting influence on India’s democratic system. The unemployed are dangerous for any democracy, including India.

It is a serious threat which politicians often are unable to face. If we are not able to create jobs, if the cities are not able to give jobs, good education, health facilities for next generation and shelter, then there are going to be serious problems in every city.

If the situation is not tackled properly, creative energy of every city is going to be consumed by law and order problems. Every city led by a Mayor needs to look to the centre of the solution of the problem. I have not come across any municipality which has come up with a creative scheme except for one or two that have raised funds. May be a couple of municipalities have dared to tax the people to the level they should. Most look to the the States and the Centre for money.

Many criminals who have got into politics, state assembly and even in Parliament because of the malfunctioning of the system. The law-breakers are becoming law-makers. Local rulers can be exploited by the local mafia moré effectively. That danger is there. To persuade them to think globally or nationally is a bit distant. Much more needs to be done to strengthen liberal rural democracy in India.

The seed of global governance where people should matter is the central idea of Mahatma Gandhi. But Gandhi is forgotten in India except on October 2nd. I remember a pocket cartoon, Dr. Barber. It appeared in a Delhi paper.

A father and son were going for a morning walk on October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, and apparently father is giving an idea to the son who Mahatma Gandhi was.

No, Papa. Tell me when is Ben Kinsley’s birthday?

The new generation apparently knows Ben Kinsley’s birthday, and not Mahatma Gandhi’s.

India needs a strategy to deal with Afghanistan after the US troop draw- down is complete

By H K Dua

Normally, celebrations are held when foreign troops leave a native soil. No Kabuliwala has, however, brought good tidings from back home after most US troops have pulled out of Afghanistan.

The belief in the White House and at the Capitol Hill that peace would return to Afghanistan with the boys coming home after the 13-year war may turn out to be misplaced. Guns are not going to be silent simply because Americans and the British soldiers have returned to the waiting arms of families and friends.

The Taliban have not stopped killing people. They covet power in Kabul now when US troops have practically left the mountains. And then just across the Khyber there is Pakistan, waiting greedily for acquiring what their policy-makers describe as “strategic depth.” across the western front.

Not before long, Afghanistan is going to get caught in uncertainty despite the fact that there is a democratic set up in place in Kabul, and the people, particularly women who went through tough time in the 1990’s when the Taliban were playing havoc, are now feeling free. Somehow, the Americans and the British tend to believe that the Ashraf Ghani-Abdullah Abdullah dispensation brought about by Secretary of State John Kerry will provide political stability and social peace to the Afghans, whose ethnic divides are notorious for sharp divisions.

The West also tends to be optimistic that the Afghan National Army it is leaving behind with some left-over arms, will be capable of fending off the Taliban groups who might try to make a bid for power in Kabul. On both counts, the US optimism may prove to be only self-serving, meant to rationalise their pull-out, and convey to the world that this is not America’s Vietnam moment.

There are two reasons why the US had moved into Afghanistan: One, to give a decisive blow to international terrorism after 9/11; and the other to ensure its strategic presence in the area. Both the missions remain unaccomplished.

The reasons were actually domestic for the US. President Barack Obama had no stomach for wars begun by George Bush Jr. Also the Afghan venture was upsetting the US economy headed as it was for a recession. Fairly, in the beginning of his tenure, President Obama had told his band of policy advisors to start thinking of an exit strategy.

Obama came out with a delectable coinage: “There are good Taliban, there are bad Taliban”.“What are the good Taliban and what are the bad Taliban?” I asked a former US ambassador I had run into at a think tank meeting in Delhi.

“A good Taliban are those who accept our money, the bad Taliban are those who don’t; and are hard-core fellows moved only by IsIamist ideology”, he said with a chuckle.All these years Obama’s men have been secretly talking to the so-called “good Taliban, discussing perhaps not money matters, but a smooth pull-out of US troops.”

Western policy wonks who visit Delhi these days to explain the rationale of the pull-out don’t hide the battle fatigue that had set in among US and Nato powers after 13 years of fighting and at a high cost no one was ready to pay.
Most western visitors contend that they are not abandoning Afghanistan. There will be12,000-odd US-NATO troops plus drones for contingencies. Also the Afghan National Army is now well equipped to handle the situation. So goes the logic of the apologists for troops withdrawals.

Just 12000 troops – Mostly observers, advisers and their attendants – can’t do the job being done by earlier 2,25,000-odd western troops. Also, drones can only kill from the air, but cannot control the situation on the ground., Ill-equipped Afghan National Army with little air support cannot defend the government in Kabul either for long. The defence and strategic treaty US signed with Hamid Karzai before he demitted office may not be enough of a guarantee for peace.

The US might give some economic aid to Kabul, but for how long? This year’s poppy crop is going to show a massive surge, but who will this help – the Kabul government, the warlords or the Taliban? There is always a link between terrorism and narcotics money.

Political situation in Afghanistan may not remain stable for long as anticipated by the Obama administration. The handshake between President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah doesn’t provide durable friendship or efficient teamwork.

For India, the Afghanistan situation has emerged as a major foreign and security policy challenge. India was thrown out of Afghanistan by the Taliban regime in power in the 1990s. Remember an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked in 1999 and Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh had to escort a Pak terrorist leader, to hand him over to the hijackers on the tarmac of the Kandhar airport – to get 160-odd Indian hostages released! This was perhaps the most humiliating moment for India after its defeat in the 1962 Indo-China war. After the Taliban was defeated post-9/11, by the US-Nato troops and Hamid Karzai was installed as President, India again began investing in Afghanistan, politically and strategically. By now, it has also invested over $ 2 billion in Afghanistan’s economic and social development which has earned it considerable popular goodwill.

Pakistan and Taliban factions, however, hate Indian presence in Afghanistan. Indian Embassy in Kabul and missions in Jalalabad and lately Herat have been attacked by Pakistan-backed Taliban. For India the security problems with Pakistan won’t be confined to the Wagah border or the Line of Control in J&K but will also have to be faced in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, Ashraf Ghani may not follow Hamid Karzai’s policy vis-a-vis India. After taking over as President, he has approached the Chinese for help. He has got in touch with Pakistan, believing perhaps that Islamabad will be able to dissuade the Taliban from making attempts to destabilise the new Government in Kabul. Off and on, Hamid Karzai also made similar attempts, but failed.

Stability in Afghanistan is important for its people as well as the entire region – but it does not help Pakistan which essentially wants to install a pliable Taliban faction in Kabul.
Pakistan’s policy and designs – a part of its overall plan to acquire strategic depth in Afghanistan can lead to more tensions in the region.

If the Indian Government has worked out a policy on the emerging situation in Afghanistan, it is not known to the country. Sooner or later, it may have to take people into confidence about how it is going to face these challenges in the north-west.
———-
The writer, a Rajya Sabha MP, is a
former editor of ‘The Indian Express’